The Linear Narrative Reevaluated

The controversy over the linear narrative and anti-linear narrative was one of the most prominent phenomena in the twentieth century western poetics, yet in the text of fiction and the text of movie/television, this controversy embodies totally differentiating modes of expression, interest appealing, and value stance.The result of the controversy is clear: the linear narrative has declined in the creativity and criticism of fiction while the anti-linear narrative has become the dominant discourse in the above-mentioned domains. A basic form of classic narrative as it was, the linear narrative has now become a derogative term in the discourse of literary criticism, and its essential merit is by and large ignored and depreciated. Yet in another significant type of narrative text, namely, the text of movie and teleplay, with its permanent value being recognized, the linear narrative as a mainstream narrative has sustained a colossal industry, which is nothing short of a lively contrast to its fate in the text of fiction. This phenomenon in turn propels us to reevaluate the merit of the linear narrative. As the anti-linear narrative movement has exerted great negative effect upon the creation of fiction and movie and teleplay, it proves to be particularly important to reevaluate the merit of linear narrative.The prerequisite to reevaluating the merit of linear narrative is to find out the complicated reasons that have caused its decline. This paper will first explore four main factors underlying the decline of linear narrative: (1) It is connected with the modern people's changed experience in terms of time and space. Generally speaking, modern culture has shifted its pursuit from quality to quantity, from profundity to superficiality, from time appeal to space appeal. In a disrupted era when people universally believe in the death of God, the anti-linear narrative caters for some certain psychological needs to resist history as a way of catharsis while such elements as plot and story, featuring the dimension of time, is given the cold shoulder. (2) It is connected with the misconception about the truth in the world of western art. The so-called "absolute truth" and "psychological truth" stressed by the twentieth-century western art, and such things as the clear time, place, and the identity of the characters, the complete and coherent plot and structure, the logical event in terms of cause and effect, and the motivation to represent the real world that is emphasized by classical realism, are all thoroughly doubted and criticized, hence undermining the legitimacy of linear narrative. (3) From the perspective of the text itself, the decline of the linear narrative is accelerated in reality by the greatly increasing non-linear narrative factors. even though there exists an enormous essential difference between non-linear narrative and anti-linear narrative. (4) The discourse of anti-linear narrative has actually consolidated professional positions of the critics concerned, reinforcing their discourse right about story telling, and therefore receiving their fervent welcome. In consideration of this, the critics .would rather break with the audience who habitually favor the linear narrative, causing the linear narrative to be ignored and forgotten.Despite all this, the linear narrative has not died away. The reevaluation of the merit of linear narrative has been required both for theoretical studies and creative practice. This paper attempts to induce and demonstrate the following four aspects: (1) The contemporary novel in China has experienced the zigzag evolution from "the adventure of narrative" to "the narrative of adventure", which indicates the ending of "the vanguard narrative" and testifies to the return of linear narrative. (2) In the 100-year history of movie development, the mainstream status of "story movie" has been strongly sustaining the resplendence of the linear narrative in the human history of narrative art. The so-called " artistic movie" characterized by "anti-plot", "anti-story", and "anti-cause-and-effect property" with the flavor of modernism has failed to win a universal recognition from the public. On the contrary, it has dramatically withered all over the world. As a prominent part of China's cultural strategy, China's movie industry should straighten out the negative effect brought by anti-linear narrative in an all-round way. (3) The fact that there is no market for anti-linear narrative and even no dispute over the linear narrative and anti-linear narrative in the text of television more convincingly testifies the eternal value of linear narrative. The extending trend in terms of story appealing in other TV programs exhibits the audience's full recognition of the linear narrative. (4) From the perspective of reception psychology, linear narrative satisfies the audience's double needs: the need for "redemption" and the need for "sense of order", both of which are the internal value of linear narrative.Linear narrative is the basic mode of classic narrative, and has also been the basic historic fact over the past few thousand years. It has eternal value. It will not fade away in front of the impetuous attack from anti-linear narrative; The beginning of the twenty-first century has witnessed the linear narrative returning in variant forms. It has become a historic mission of critics to reevaluate the merit of the linear narrative!...